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Sixty-Fifth Congress, Third Session 


Senate Document No. 410 


WASHINGTON’S 
FAREWELL ADDRESS 


DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE 



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WASHINGTON’S 
FAREWELL ADDRESS 

. TO THE 

PEOPLE OF THE 
UNITED STATES 


(m) 






SUBMITTED BY MB. GORE. 

In the Senate of the United States, 

February 22, 1919. 

Ordered, That the Declaration of Independence and 
Washington’s Farewell Address be printed as a Senate 
document, and that as many additional copies as can be 
obtained for $500 he printed for the use of the Senate. 
Attest: 

James M. Baker, 

Secretary. 


(IV) 


WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS 

& 

To the people of the United States. 

Friends and Fellow Citizens: The period for 
a new election of a citizen to administer the 
executive government of the United States being 
not far distant, and the time actually arrived 
when your thoughts must be employed in des¬ 
ignating the person who is to be clothed with 
that important trust, it appears to me proper, 
especially as it may conduce to a more distinct 
expression of the public voice, that I should now 
apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to 
decline being considered among the number of 
those, out of whom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the jus¬ 
tice to be assured, that this resolution has not 
been taken, without a strict regard to all the con¬ 
siderations appertaining to the relation which 
binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that, 
in withdrawing the tender of service which 


(3) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

silence in my situation might imply, I am 
influenced by no diminution of zeal for your 
future interest; no deficiency of grateful respect 
for your past kindness; but am supported by a 
full conviction that the step is compatible with 
both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto 
in the office to which your suffrages have twice 
called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of in¬ 
clination to the opinion of duty, and to a defer¬ 
ence for what appeared to be your desire. I 
constantly hoped that it would have been much 
earlier in my power, consistently with motives 
which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return 
to that retirement from which I had been reluc¬ 
tantly drawn. The strength of my inclination 
to do this, previous to the last election, had even 
led to the preparation of an address to declare 
it to you; but mature reflection on the then 
perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with 
foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of 
persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me 
to abandon the idea. 


(4) 


Washington's Farewell Address 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns ex¬ 
ternal as well as internal, no longer renders 
the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the 
sentiment of duty or propriety; and am per¬ 
suaded, whatever partiality may be retained for 
my services, that in the present circumstances 
of our country, you will not disapprove my 
determination to retire. 

The impressions with which I first undertook 
the arduous trust, were explained on the proper 
occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will 
only say that I have, with good intentions, con¬ 
tributed towards the organization and adminis¬ 
tration of the government, the best exertions 
of which a very fallible judgment was capable. 
Not unconscious in the outset, of the inferiority 
of my qualifications, experience, in my own 
eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, 
has strengthened the motives to diffidence of 
myself; and, every day, the increasing weight 
of years admonishes me more and more, that 
the shade of retirement is as necessary to me 
as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any 


(5) 


Washington's Farewell Address 

circumstances have given peculiar value to my 
services they were temporary, I have the con¬ 
solation to believe that, while choice and pru¬ 
dence invite me to quit the political scene, 
patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is 
to terminate the career of my political life, my 
feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep 
acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which 
I owe to my beloved country, for the many 
honors it has conferred upon me; still more for 
the steadfast confidence with which it has sup¬ 
ported me; and for the opportunities I have 
thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable 
attachment, by services faithful and persever¬ 
ing, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. 
If benefits have resulted to our country from 
these services, let it always be remembered to 
your praise, and as an instructive example in 
our annals, that under circumstances in which 
the passions, agitated in every direction, were 
liable to mislead amidst appearances some¬ 
times dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often 


(6) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 


discouraging—in situations in which not unfre- 
quently, want of success has countenanced the 
spirit of criticism,—the constancy of your sup¬ 
port was the essential prop of the efforts, and 
a guarantee of the plans, by which they were 
effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, 
I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong 
incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may 
continue to you the choicest tokens of its benefi¬ 
cence—that your union and brotherly affection 
may be perpetual—that the free constitution, 
which is the work of your hands, may be 
sacredly maintained—that its administration in 
every department may be stamped with wis¬ 
dom and virtue—that, in fine, the happiness of 
the people of these states, under the auspices of 
liberty, may be made complete by so careful 
a preservation, and so prudent a use of this 
blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of 
recommending it to the applause, the affection 
and adoption of every nation which is yet a 
stranger to it. 


S. Doc. 410, 65-3-2 


(7) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solici¬ 
tude for your welfare, which cannot end but 
with my life, and the apprehension of danger, 
natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occa¬ 
sion like the present, to offer to your solemn 
contemplation, and to recommend to your fre¬ 
quent review, some sentiments which are the 
result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable 
observation, and which appear to me all impor¬ 
tant to the permanency of your felicity as a 
people. These will be offered to you with the 
more freedom, as you can only see in them the 
disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who 
can possibly have no personal motive to bias 
his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encourage¬ 
ment to it, your indulgent reception of my 
sentiments on a former and not dissimilar 
occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every 
ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of 
mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the 
attachment. 


(8) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 


The unity of government which constitutes 
you one people, is also now dear to you. It is 
justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of 
your real independence; the support of your 
tranquility at home: your peace abroad; of your 
safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty 
which you so highly prize. But, as it is easy to 
foresee that, from different causes and from dif¬ 
ferent quarters much pains will be taken, many 
artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the 
conviction of this truth; as this is the point in 
your political fortress against which the batter¬ 
ies of internal and external enemies will be 
most constantly and actively (though often 
covertly and insidiously) directed; it is of infi¬ 
nite moment, that you should properly estimate 
the immense value of your national union to 
your collective and individual happiness; that 
you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and 
immovable attachment to it; accustoming 
yourselves to think and speak of it as of the 
palladium of your political safety and prosper¬ 
ity; watching for its preservation with jealous 


(9) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

anxiety; discountenancing whatever may sug¬ 
gest even a suspicion that it can, in any event, 
be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon 
the first dawning of every attempt to alienate 
any portion of our country from the rest, or to 
enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together 
the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sym¬ 
pathy and interest. Citizens by birth, or choice, 
of a common country, that country has a right 
to concentrate your affections. The name of 
American, which belongs to you in your na¬ 
tional capacity, must always exalt the just pride 
of patriotism, more than any appellation de¬ 
rived from local discriminations. With slight 
shades of difference, you have the same religion, 
manners, habits, and political principles. You 
have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed 
together; the independence and liberty you 
possess, are the work of joint counsels, and joint 
efforts, of common dangers, sufferings and 
successes. 


(10) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

But these considerations, however powerfully 
they address themselves to your sensibility, are 
greatly outweighed by those which apply more 
immediately to your interest.—Here, every por¬ 
tion of our country finds the most commanding 
motives for carefully guarding and preserving 
the union of the whole. 

The north, in an unrestrained intercourse 
with the south, protected by the equal laws of 
a common government, finds in the productions 
of the latter, great additional resources of mari¬ 
time and commercial enterprise, and precious 
materials of manufacturing industry.—The 
south , in the same intercourse, benefiting by the 
same agency of the north, sees its agriculture 
grow and its commerce expand. Turning 
partly into its own channels the seamen of the 
north, it finds its particular navigation invigor¬ 
ated; and while it contributes, in different ways, 
to nourish and increase the general mass of the 
national navigation, it looks forward to the 
protection of a maritime strength, to which 
itself is unequally adapted. The east, in a like 


<ii) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

intercourse with the west , already finds, and in 
the progressive improvement of interior commu¬ 
nications by land and water, will more and more 
find a valuable vent for the commodities which 
it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. 
The west derives from the east supplies requisite 
to its growth and comfort—and what is perhaps 
of still greater consequence, it must of necessity 
owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable out¬ 
lets for its own productions, to the weight, in¬ 
fluence, and the future maritime strength of the 
Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indis¬ 
soluble community of interest as one nation. 
Any other tenure by which the west can hold 
this essential advantage, whether derived from 
its own separate strength; or from an apostate 
and unnatural connection with any foreign 
power, must be intrinsically precarious. 

While then every part of our country thus 
feels an immediate and particular interest in 
union, all the parts combined cannot fail to 
find in the united mass of means and efforts, 
greater strength, greater resource, proportion¬ 


ed 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

ably greater security from external danger, a 
less frequent interruption of their peace by for¬ 
eign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, 
they must derive from union, an exemption 
from those broils and wars between themselves, 
which so frequently afflict neighboring coun¬ 
tries not tied together by the same government; 
which their own rivalship alone would be suffi¬ 
cient to produce, but which opposite foreign 
alliances, attachments, and intrigues, would 
stimulate and embitter.—Hence likewise, they 
will avoid the necessity of those overgrown 
military establishments, which under any form 
of government are inauspicious to liberty, and 
which are to be regarded as particularly hostile 
to republican liberty. In this sense it is, that 
your union ought to be considered as a main 
prop of your liberty, and that the love of the 
one ought to endear to you the preservation of 
the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive lan¬ 
guage to every reflecting and virtuous mind, 
and exhibit the continuance of the union as a 


(13) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a 
doubt whether a common government can em¬ 
brace so large a sphere? let experience solve it. 
To listen to mere speculation in such a case 
were criminal. We are authorized to hope that 
a proper organization of the whole, with the 
auxiliary agency of governments for the respec¬ 
tive subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to 
the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full 
experiment. With such powerful and obvious 
motives to union, affecting all parts of our 
country, while experience shall not have dem¬ 
onstrated its impracticability, there will always 
be reason to distrust the patriotism of those 
who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken 
its hands. 

In contemplating the causes which may dis¬ 
turb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious 
concern, that any ground should have been fur¬ 
nished for characterizing parties by geograph¬ 
ical discriminations ,—northern and southern — 
Atlantic and western; whence designing men 
may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a 


(14) 


Washington's Farewell Address 


real difference of local interests and views. One 
of the expedients of party to acquire influence 
within particular districts, is to misrepresent the 
opinions and aims of other districts. You can¬ 
not shield yourselves too much against the jeal¬ 
ousies and heart burnings which spring from 
these misrepresentations: they tend to render 
alien to each other those who ought to be bound 
together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants 
of our western country have lately had a useful 
lesson on this head: they have seen, in the ne¬ 
gotiation by the executive, and in the unani¬ 
mous ratification by the senate of the treaty 
with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction 
at the event throughout the United States, a 
decisive proof how unfounded were the suspi¬ 
cions propagated among them of a policy in the 
general government and in the Atlantic states, 
unfriendly to their interests in regard to the 
Mississippi. They have been witnesses to the 
formation of two treaties, that with Great Brit¬ 
ain and that with Spain, which secure to them 
everything they could desire, in respect to our 



S. Doc. 410, 65-J 


Washington's Farewell Address 

foreign relations, towards confirming their pros¬ 
perity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for 
the preservation of these advantages on the 
union by which they were procured? will they 
not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such 
they are, who would sever them from their 
brethren and connect them with aliens? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your 
Union, a government for the whole is indispen¬ 
sable. No alliances, however strict, between the 
parts can be an adequate substitute; they must 
inevitably experience the infractions and inter¬ 
ruptions which all alliances, in all times, have 
experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, 
you have improved upon your first essay, by the 
adoption of a constitution of government, better 
calculated than your former, for an intimate 
union, and f6r the efficacious management of 
your common concerns. This government, the 
offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and 
unawed, adopted upon full investigation and 
mature deliberation, completely free in its prin¬ 
ciples, in the distribution of its powers, uniting 


(16) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

security with energy, and containing within 
itself a provision for its own amendment, has a 
just claim to your confidence and your support 
Respect for its authority, compliance with its 
laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties 
enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true 
liberty. The basis of our political systems is 
the right of the people to make and to alter 
their constitutions of government.—But the con¬ 
stitution which at any time exists, until changed 
by an explicit and authentic act of the whole 
people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The 
very idea of the power, and the right of the 
people to establish government, presuppose the 
duty of every individual to obey the established 
government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, 
all combinations and associations under what¬ 
ever plausible character, with the real design to 
direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular 
deliberations and action of the constituted 
authorities, are destructive of this fundamental 
principle, and of fatal tendency.—They serve to 


(17) 


Washington's Farewell Address 

organize faction, to give it an artificial and extra¬ 
ordinary force, to put in the place of the dele¬ 
gated will of the nation the will of party, often a 
small but artful and enterprising minority of 
the community; and, according to the alternate 
triumphs of different parties, to make the public 
administration the mirror of the ill concerted 
and incongruous projects of faction, rather than 
the organ of consistent and wholesome plans 
digested by common councils, and modified by 
mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the 
above description may now and then answer 
popular ends, they are likely, in the course of 
time and things, to become potent engines, by 
which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled 
men, will be enabled to subvert the power of 
the people, and to usurp for themselves the 
reins of government; destroying afterwards the 
very engines which have lifted them to unjust 
dominion. 

Towards the preservation of your govern¬ 
ment and the permanency of your present 


(18) 


Washington's Farewell Address 


happy state, it is requisite, not only that you 
steadily discountenance irregular opposition to 
its acknowledged authority, but also that you 
resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its 
principles, however specious the pretext. One 
method of assault may be to effect, in the forms 
of the constitution, alterations which will im¬ 
pair the energy of the system; and thus to un¬ 
dermine what cannot be directly overthrown. 
In all the changes to which you may be invited, 
remember that time and habit are at least as 
necessary to fix the true character of govern¬ 
ments, as of other human institutions:—that 
experience is the surest standard by which to 
test the real tendency of the existing constitu¬ 
tion of a country:—that facility in changes, 
upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, 
exposes to perpetual change from the endless 
variety of hypothesis and opinion: and remem¬ 
ber, especially, that for the efficient manage¬ 
ment of your common interests in a country 
so extensive as ours, a government of as much 
vigor as is consistent with the perfect security 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will 
find in such a government, with powers prop¬ 
erly distributed and adjusted, its surest guar¬ 
dian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, 
where the government is too feeble to with¬ 
stand the enterprises of faction, to confine each 
member of the society within the limits pre¬ 
scribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the 
secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of 
person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger 
of parties in the state, with particular references 
to the founding them on geographical dis¬ 
crimination. Let me now take a more compre¬ 
hensive view, and warn you in the most solemn 
manner against the baneful effects of the spirit 
of party generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from 
our nature, having its root in the strongest 
passions of the human mind.—It exists under 
different shapes in all governments, more or 
less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those 


( 20 ) 


Washington's Farewell Address 

of the popular form it is seen in its greatest 
rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over 
another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge nat¬ 
ural to party dissension, which in different ages 
and countries has perpetrated the most horrid 
enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.—But 
this leads at length to a more formal and per¬ 
manent despotism. The disorders and miseries 
which result, gradually incline the minds of 
men to seek security and repose in the absolute 
power of an individual; and, sooner or later, 
the chief of some prevailing faction, more able 
or more fortunate than his competitors, turns 
this disposition to the purpose of his own eleva¬ 
tion on the ruins of public liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of 
this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be 
entirely out of sight) the common and con¬ 
tinual mischiefs of the spirit of party are suffi¬ 
cient to make it the interest and duty of a wise 
people to discourage and restrain it. 


( 21 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

It serves always to distract the public coun¬ 
cils, and enfeeble the public administration. It 
agitates the community with ill founded jeal¬ 
ousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity 
of one part against another; foments occasional 
riot and insurrection. It opens the door to 
foreign influence and corruption, which finds 
a facilitated access to the government itself 
through the channels of party passions. Thus 
the policy and the will of one country are sub¬ 
jected to the policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion that parties in free 
countries are useful checks upon the adminis¬ 
tration of the government, and serve to keep 
alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain 
limits is probably true; and in governments of a 
monarchial cast, patriotism may look with in¬ 
dulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of 
party. But in those of the popular character, in 
governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to 
be encouraged. From their natural tendency, 
it is certain there will always be enough of that 
spirit for every salutary purpose. And there 


( 22 ) 


Washington's Farewell Address 

being constant danger of excess, the effort ought 
to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate 
and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it de¬ 
mands a uniform vigilance to prevent it burst¬ 
ing into a flame, lest instead of warming, it 
should consume. 

It is important likewise, that the habits of 
thinking in a free country should inspire cau¬ 
tion in those intrusted with its administration, 
to confine themselves within their respective 
constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise 
of the powers of one department, to encroach 
upon another. The spirit of encroachment 
tends to consolidate the powers of all the de¬ 
partments in one, and thus to create, whatever 
the form of government, a real despotism. A 
just estimate of that love of power and prone¬ 
ness to abuse it which predominate in the 
human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the 
truth of this position. The necessity of recip¬ 
rocal checks in the exercise of political power, 
by dividing and distributing it into different de¬ 
positories, and constituting each the guardian 


S. Doc. 410, 65-i 


( 23 ) 


Washington's Farewell Address 

of the public weal against invasions of the 
others, has been evinced by experiments an¬ 
cient and modern: some of them in our coun¬ 
try and under our own eyes.—To preserve them 
must be as necessary as to institute them. If, 
in the opinion of the people, the distribution or 
modification of the constitutional powers be in 
any particular wrong, let it be corrected by 
an amendment in the way which the constitu-' 
tion designates.—But let there be no change by 
usurpation; for though this, in one instance^ 
may be the instrument of good, it is the custom¬ 
ary weapon by which free governments are de¬ 
stroyed. The precedent must always greatly 
overbalance in permanent evil, any partial or 
transient benefit which the use can at any time 
yield. 

4 Of all the dispositions and habits which lead 
to political prosperity, religion and morality are 
indispensable supports. In vain would that 
man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should 
labor to subvert these great pillars of human 
happiness, these firmest props of the duties of 


( 24 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

men and citizens. The mere politician, equally 
with the pious man, ought to respect and to 
cherish them. A volume could not trace all 
their connections with private and public 
felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, if 
the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths 
which are the instruments of investigation in 
courts of justice? and let us with caution 
indulge the supposition that morality can be 
maintained without religion. Whatever may 
be conceded to the influence of refined educa¬ 
tion on minds of peculiar structure, reason and 
experience both forbid us to expect, that 
national morality can prevail in exclusion of 
religious principle. 

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality 
is a necessary spring of popular government. 
The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force 
to every species of free government. Who that 
is a sincere friend to it can look with indiffer¬ 
ence upon attempts to shake the foundation of 
the fabric? 


( 25 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

Promote, then, as an object of primary impor¬ 
tance, institutions for the general diffusion of 
knowledge. In proportion as the structure of 
a government gives force to public opinion, it 
should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and 
security, cherish public credit. One method of 
preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possi¬ 
ble, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivat¬ 
ing peace, but remembering, also, that timely 
disbursements, to prepare for danger, frequently 
prevent much greater disbursements to repel 
it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, 
not only by shunning occasions of expense, but 
by vigorous exertions, in time of peace, to dis¬ 
charge the debts which unavoidable wars may 
have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing 
upon posterity the burden which we ourselves 
ought to bear. The execution of these maxims 
belongs to your representatives, but it is neces¬ 
sary that public opinion should co-operate. To 
facilitate to them the performance of their duty, 
it is essential that you should practically bear in 


( 26 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

mind, that towards the payment of debts there 
must be revenue; that to have revenue there 
must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised 
which are not more or less inconvenient and 
unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment 
inseparable from the selection of the proper 
object (which is always a choice of difficulties,) 
ought to be a decisive motive for a candid con¬ 
struction of the conduct of the government in 
making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in 
the measures for obtaining revenue, which the 
public exigencies may at any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice towards all 
nations; cultivate peace and harmony with 
all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct, 
and can it be that good policy does not equally 
enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlight¬ 
ened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, 
to give to mankind the magnanimous and too 
novel example of a people always guided by 
an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can 
doubt but, in the course of time and things, the 
fruits of such a plan would richly repay any 


( 27 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

temporary advantages which might be lost by 
a steady adherence to it; can it be that Provi¬ 
dence has not connected the permanent felicity 
of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, 
at least, is recommended by every sentiment 
which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it ren¬ 
dered impossible by its vices? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is 
more essential than that permanent, inveterate 
antipathies against particular nations and pas¬ 
sionate attachments for others, should be ex¬ 
cluded; and that, in place of them, just and ami¬ 
cable feelings towards all should be cultivated. 
The nation which indulges towards another an 
habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in 
some degree a slave. It is a slave to its ani¬ 
mosity or to its affection, either of which is suffi¬ 
cient to lead it astray from its duty and its 
interest. Antipathy in one nation against an¬ 
other, disposes each more readily to offer insult 
and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of um¬ 
brage, and to be haughty and intractable when 
accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. 


( 28 ) 


Washington's Farewell Address 

Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, enven¬ 
omed, and bloody contests. The nation, 
prompted by ill will and resentment, some¬ 
times impels to war the government, contrary 
to the best calculations of policy. The gov¬ 
ernment sometimes participates in the national 
propensity, and adopts through passion what 
reason would reject; at other times, it makes 
the animosity of the nation subservient to proj¬ 
ects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, 
and other sinister and pernicious motives. The 
peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty of 
nations, has been the victim. 

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one 
nation for another produces a variety of evils. 
Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating 
the illusion of an imaginary common interest, 
in cases where no real common interest exists, 
and infusing into one the enmities of the other, 
betrays the former into a participation in the 
quarrels and wars of the latter, without ade¬ 
quate inducements or justifications. It leads 
also to concessions, to the favorite nation, of 


( 29 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 


privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly 
to injure the nation making the concessions, by 
unnecessarily parting with what ought to have 
been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill will, 
and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from 
whom equal privileges are withheld; and it gives 
to ambitious, corrupted or deluded citizens who 
devote themselves to the favorite nation, facility 
to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own 
country, without odium, sometimes even with 
popularity; gilding with the appearances of a 
virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable 
deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal 
for public good, the base or foolish compliances 
of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumer¬ 
able ways, such attachments are particularly 
alarming to the truly enlightened and inde¬ 
pendent patriot. How many opportunities do 
they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to 
practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public 
opinion, to influence or awe the public coun¬ 
cils!—Such an attachment of a small or weak, 

( 30 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the 
former to be the satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influ¬ 
ence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citi¬ 
zens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be 
constantly awake; since history and experience 
prove, that foreign influence is one of the most 
baneful foes of republican government. But 
that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, 
else it becomes the instrument of the very influ¬ 
ence to be avoided, instead of a defense against 
it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation 
and excessive dislike for another, cause those 
whom they actuate to see danger only on one 
side, and serve to veil and even second the arts 
of influence on the other. Real patriots, who 
may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are lia¬ 
ble to become suspected and odious; while its 
tools and dupes usurp the applause and confi¬ 
dence of the people, to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard 
to foreign nations, is, in extending our com¬ 
mercial relations, to have with them as little 


( 31 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

political connection as possible. So far as we 
have already formed engagements, let them be 
fulfilled with perfect good faith:—Here let 
us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which 
to us have none, or a very remote relation. 
Hence, she must be engaged in frequent con¬ 
troversies, the causes of which are essentially 
foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it 
must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by 
artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her 
politics, or the ordinary combinations and col¬ 
lisions of her friendships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and 
enables us to pursue a different course. If we 
remain one people, under an efficient govern¬ 
ment, the period is not far off when we may 
defy material injury from external annoyance; 
when we may take such an attitude as will cause 
the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon, 
to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent 
nations, under the impossibility of making ac¬ 
quisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the 


( 32 ) 


Washington's Farewell Address 

giving us provocation, when we may choose 
peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, 
shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a 
situation? Why quit our own to stand upon 
foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our 
destiny with that of any part of Europe, entan¬ 
gle our peace and prosperity in the toils of 
European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, 
or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of perma¬ 
nent alliance with any portion of the foreign 
world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty 
to do it; for let me not be understood as capa¬ 
ble of patronizing infidelity to existing engage¬ 
ments. I hold the maxim no less applicable 
to public than private affairs, that honesty is 
always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, 
let those engagements be observed in their gen¬ 
uine sense. But in my opinion, it is unneces¬ 
sary, and would be unwise to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves by suit¬ 
able establishments, on a respectable defensive 


( 33 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

posture, we may safely trust to temporary alli¬ 
ances for extraordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all 
nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, 
and interest. But even our commercial policy 
should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither 
seeking nor granting exclusive favors or prefer¬ 
ences; consulting the natural course of things; 
diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the 
streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; es¬ 
tablishing with powers so disposed, in order to 
give trade a stable course, to define the rights 
of our merchants, and to enable the government 
to support them, conventional rules of inter¬ 
course, the best that present circumstances and 
mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and 
liable to be from time to time abandoned or 
varied as experience and circumstances shall 
dictate; constantly keeping in view, that it is 
folly in one nation to look for disinterested 
favors from another; that it must pay with a 
portion of its independence for whatever it may 
accept under that character; that by such accept¬ 


or 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

ance, it may place itself in the condition of 
having given equivalents for nominal favors, 
and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for 
not giving more. There can be no greater error 
than to expect, or calculate upon real favors 
from nation to nation. It is an illusion which 
experience must cure, which a just pride ought 
to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these 
counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I 
dare not hope they will make the strong and 
lasting impression I could wish; that they will 
control the usual current of the passions, or 
prevent our nation from running the course 
which has hitherto marked the destiny of 
nations, but if I may even flatter myself that 
they may be productive of some partial benefit, 
some occasional good; that they may now and 
then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, 
to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, 
to guard against the impostures of pretended 
patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense 


( 35 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

for the solicitude for your welfare by which 
they have been dictated. 

How far, in the discharge of my official 
duties, I have been guided by the principles 
which have been delineated, the public records 
and other evidences of my conduct must wit¬ 
ness to you and to the world. To myself, the 
assurance of my own conscience is, that I have, 
at least, believed myself to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in 
Europe, my proclamation of the 22d of April, 
1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by 
your approving voice, and by that of your rep¬ 
resentatives in both houses of congress, the 
spirit of that measure has continually governed 
me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or 
divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of 
the best lights I could obtain, I was well satis¬ 
fied that our country, under all the circum¬ 
stances of the case, had a right to take, and was 
bound, in duty and interest, to take a neutral 
position. Having taken it, I determined, as far 


( 36 ) 


) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

as should depend upon me, to maintain it with 
moderation, perseverance and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to 
hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this 
occasion to detail. I will only observe that, 
according to my understanding of the matter, 
that right, so far from being denied by any of 
the belligerent powers, has been virtually ad¬ 
mitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may 
be inferred, without any thing more, from the 
obligation which justice and humanity impose 
on every nation, in cases in which it is free to 
act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace 
and amity towards other nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing 
that conduct will best be referred to your own 
reflections and experience. With me, a pre¬ 
dominant motive has been to endeavor to gain 
time to our country to settle and mature its yet 
recent institutions, and to progress, without 
interruption, to that degree of strength, and 
consistency which is necessary to give it, 


( 37 ) 


Washington's Farewell Address 

humanly speaking, the command of its own 
fortunes. 

Though in reviewing the incidents of my 
administration, I am unconscious of intentional 
error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my de¬ 
fects not to think it probable that I may have 
committed many errors. Whatever they may 
be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or 
mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I 
shall also carry with me the hope that my 
country will never cease to view them with in¬ 
dulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my 
life dedicated to its service, with an upright zeal, 
the faults of incompetent abilities will be con¬ 
signed to oblivion, as myself must soon be to 
the mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other 
things, and actuated by that fervent love towards 
it, which is so natural to a man who views in it 
the native soil of himself and his progenitors 
for several generations; I anticipate with pleas¬ 
ing expectation that retreat in which I promise 
myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet en- 


( 38 ) 


Washington’s Farewell Address 

joyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow 
citizens, the benign influence of good laws under 
a free government—the ever favorite object of 
my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of 
our mutual cares, labors and dangers. 

GEO. WASHINGTON. 

United States,' 

17th September, 1796. 


( 39 ) 








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‘ 






DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE 


( 41 ) 



































































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DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

IN CONGRESS JULY 4, 1776. 

THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

When in the Course of human events, it be¬ 
comes necessary for one people to dissolve the 
political bands which have connected them with 
another, and to assume among the powers of the 
earth, the separate and equal station to which 
the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle 
them, a decent respect to the opinions of man¬ 
kind requires that they should declare the causes 
which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that 
all men are created equal, that they are endowed 
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, 
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pur¬ 
suit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, 
Governments are instituted among Men, deriv¬ 
ing their just powers from the consent of the 
governed, That whenever any Form of Govern- 


( 43 ) 


Declaration of Independence 

ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the 
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and 
to institute new Government, laying its founda¬ 
tion on such principles and organizing its pow¬ 
ers in such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments 
long established should not be changed for light 
and transient causes; and accordingly all ex¬ 
perience hath shewn, that mankind are more 
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, 
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms 
to which they are accustomed. But when a long 
train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing in¬ 
variably the same Object evinces a design to 
reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is 
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such 
Government, and to provide new Guards for 
their future security. Such has been the patient 
sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now 
the necessity which constrains them to alter 
their former Systems of Government. The 
history of the present King of Great Britain is 


( 44 ) 


Declaration of Independence 

a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, 
all having in direct object the establishment of 
an absolute Tyranny over these States. To 
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid 
world. 

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most 
wholesome and necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws 
of immediate and pressing importance, unless 
suspended in their operation till his Assent 
should be obtained; and when so suspended, he 
has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other Laws for the 
accommodation of large districts of people, un¬ 
less those people would relinquish the right of 
Representation in the Legislature, a right in¬ 
estimable to them and formidable to tyrants 
only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at 
places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from 
the depository of their public Records, for the 
sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance 
with his measures. 


( 45 ) 


Declaration of Independence 

He has dissolved Representative Houses re¬ 
peatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his 
invasions of the rights of the people. 

He has refused for a long time, after such dis¬ 
solutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby 
the Legislative powers, incapable of Annhila- 
tion, have returned to the People at large for 
their exercise; the State remaining in the mean¬ 
time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from 
without, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population 
of these States; for that purpose of obstructing 
the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; re¬ 
fusing to pass others to encourage their migra¬ 
tions hither, and raising the conditions of new 
Appropriations of Lands. 

He has obstructed the Administration of Jus¬ 
tice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for estab¬ 
lishing Judiciary Powers. 

He has made Judges dependent on his Will 
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the 
amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and 


( 46 ) 


Declaration of Independence 

sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our 
people, and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, 
Standing Armies without the Consent of our 
legislature. 

He has affected to render the Military inde¬ 
pendent of and superior to the Civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to 
a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and 
unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent 
to their Acts of pretended Legislation: 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops 
among us: 

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from 
punishment for any Murders which they should 
commit on the Inhabitants of these States: 

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the 
world: 

For imposing Taxes on us without our 
Consent: 

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits 
of Trial by jury: 


Declaration of Independence 

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried 
for pretended offenses: 

For abolishing the free System of English 
Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing 
therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging 
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an ex¬ 
ample and fit instrument for introducing the 
same absolute rule into these Colonies: 

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our 
most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally 
the Forms of our Governments: 

For suspending our own Legislatures, and 
declaring themselves invested with power to 
legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated Government here, by declar¬ 
ing us out of his Protection and Waging War 
against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, 
burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our 
people. 

He is at this time transporting large Armies 
of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works 
of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun 


( 48 ) 


Declaration of Independence 

with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely 
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and 
totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-Citizens taken 
Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against 
their Country, to become the executioners of 
their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves 
by their Hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst 
us, and has endeavored to bring on the in¬ 
habitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian 
Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an 
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes 
and conditions. 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have 
Petitioned for Redress in the most humble 
terms: Our repeated Petitions have been an¬ 
swered only by repeated injury. A Prince, 
whose character is thus marked by every act 
which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the 
ruler of a free people. 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to 
our British brethren. We have warned them 


( 49 ) 


Declaration of Independence 

from time to time of attempts by their legisla¬ 
ture to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction 
over us. We have reminded them of the cir¬ 
cumstances of our emigration and settlement 
here. We have appealed to their native justice 
and magnanimity, and we have conjured them 
by the ties or our common kindred to disavow 
these usurpations, which would inevitably in¬ 
terrupt our connections and correspondence. 
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice 
and consanguinity. We must, therefore, ac¬ 
quiesce in the necessity, which denounces our 
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest 
of mankind. Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. 

WE, THEREFORE, the Representatives of 
the United States of America, in General 
Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme 
Judge of the world for the rectitude of our inten¬ 
tions, do, in the Name, and by authority of the 
good People of these Colonies, solemly publish 
and declare. That these United Colonies are, and 
of Right ought to be free and independent 
States; that they are Absolved from all Al- 


( 50 ) 


Declaration of Independence 


legiance to the British Crown, and that all politi¬ 
cal connection between them and the State of 
Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dis¬ 
solved; and that as free and independent States, 
they have full Power to levy War, conclude 
Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, 
and to do all other Acts and Things which inde¬ 
pendent States may of right do. And for the 
support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance 
on the protection of Divine Providence, We 
mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our 
Fortunes and our sacred Honor. 

(The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, en¬ 
grossed, and signed by the following members:) 


JOHN HANCOCK. 


New Hampshire. 


Josiah Bartlett, 
Wm. Whipple, 


Matthew Thornton. 


Massachusetts Bay. 


Saml. Adams, 
John Adams, 


Robt. Treat Paine, 
Elbridge Gerry, 


V 


Rhode Island, etc. 


Step. Hopkins, 


William Ellery. 


( 51 ) 


Declaration of Independence 


Connecticut. 

Roger Sherman, Wm. Williams, 

Sam’el Huntington, Oliver Wolcott. 

New York. 

Wm. Floyd, Frans. Lewis, 

Phil. Livingston, Lewis Morris. 

New Jersey. 

Richd. Stockton, John Hart, 

Jno. Witherspoon, Abra. Clark. 

Fras. Hopkinson, 


Pennsylvania. 

Robt. Morris, Jas. Smith, 

Renjamin Rush, Geo. Taylor, 

Benja. Franklin, James Wilson, 

John Morton, 

Geo. Clymer, 

Cesar Rodney, 

Geo. Read, 


Geo. Ross. 

Delaware. 

Tho. M’Kean. 


Samuel Chase, 
Wm. Paca, 


Maryland. 

Thos. Stone, 
Charles Carroll of 
Carrollton. 


Virginia. 


George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Th Jefferson, 
Benja. Harrison, 


Thos. Nelson, jr., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 


( 52 ) 


r 


Declaration of Independence 
North Carolina. 

Wm. Hooper, John Penn. 

Joseph Hewes, 

South Carolina. 

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, junr., 

Thos. Heyward, junr., Arthur Middleton. 

Georgia. 

Button Gwinnett, Geo. Walton, 

Lyman Hall, 




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